Hannibal (Punic Hanniba'al חניבעל, Ba'al is my grace, or Ba'al has given me grace), son of Hamilcar Barca (247 BC - ca. 183 BC, HEG/HANNIBAL_mercy_or_favour_of_Baa.html" target="_blank">HANNIBAL ("grace of Baal") 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica short form Hannibal) was a Carthaginian military commander and _tactician, later also working in other professions, who is popularly credited as one of the finest commanders in history. He lived during a period of tension in the Mediterranean, when Rome (then the Roman Republic) established its supremacy over other great powers such as Carthage, Macedon, Syracuse, and the Seleucid empire. He is one of the best-known Carthaginian commanders. His most famous achievement was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy.

During his invasion of Italy, he defeated the Romans in a series of battles, including those at Trebia, Trasimene and Cannae. He maintained an army in Italy for more than a decade afterward, never losing a major engagement, but could not force the Romans to accept his terms for peace. A Roman counter-invasion of Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was defeated in the Battle of Zama. After the war he successfully ran for the office of suffet. He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. However, his reforms were unpopular with members of the upper Roman class forcing Hannibal to go into exile. During his exile, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military advisor to Antiochus III in his war against Rome. After Antiochus III met defeat and was forced to accept their terms, Hannibal fled again, making a stop in Armenia, where he worked as a planner for the new capital. His flight ended in the court of Bithynia where he may have achieved an outstanding naval victory by means of biological warfare and was afterwards betrayed to the Romans.

Hannibal is universally ranked as one of the greatest military commanders and tacticians in history. Military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge once famously called Hannibal the "father of strategy", because his greatest enemy, Rome, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in its own strategic arsenal. This praise has earned him a strong reputation in the modern world and he was regarded as a "gifted strategist" by men like Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington. His life has been the basis for a number of films and documentaries.

He has been attributed with the famous quotation, "We will either find a way, or make one."

Hannibal (born Marvin Peterson in Smithville, Texas, United States, November 11, 1948; formerly Hannibal Lokumbe and Hannibal Marvin Peterson) is an American jazz trumpeter and composer.

He attended North Texas State University from 1967 to 1969, then moved to New York in 1970.

Hannibal has performed with Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Roswell Rudd, Makanda Ken McIntyre, Deidre Murray, Pharoah Sanders, Roy Haynes, and George Adams.